


Legends Never Die

by petalsandguitars



Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: Gen, Heavy Self-Harm, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Post-Movie, Suicidal Thoughts, new life, new start
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-03-01 20:35:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13302699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petalsandguitars/pseuds/petalsandguitars
Summary: After Ernesto's darkest secret is out, his whole life falls apart and he falls into a desperation he never even imagined possible... but an old friend, willing to help and forgive, will change everything forever.





	1. A Fool's Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his reputation is destroyed, Ernesto's only wish is achieving a final death and knowing he won't ever be forgotten, he believes there must be another way to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find my Tumblr post for this here: https://fedecolombo.tumblr.com/post/172669439452/.
> 
> Writing based on my own idea.

Ernesto de la Cruz had never really allowed himself to weigh the possibility of the truth being revealed and of his whole life being destroyed with it.

He had felt all sorts of sensations since that very last time at his Sunrise Spectacular, and none of them had felt good.

He had felt hatred, despair and loneliness beyond what he thought was possible to feel.

But at some point he had felt relief, his secret was out, everyone knew him for the monster he really was inside, he felt like a horrible writhing something had been lifted from his body, he had felt free, if only for a moment.

Then came the lasting sensation, one of deep desperation.

He couldn’t show his face anywhere without being at the very least eyed badly, some people went so far as to try and beat him up, some had succeded.

After days of wandering around the city, keeping to dark alleyways and feeling like a rat or some dirty animal for that, he reached a seemingly abandoned town of sorts. It was composed of bungalows and wooden bridges, he checked very thoroughly that no one was there, then picked a dwelling at random and entered.

He found a dirty mattress and let himself fall on it.

He would often find himself literally begging for death only to remember that he had already died.

If only he could be forgotten… he thought there was nothing more that he wanted than to get out of this nightmare of a life.

But there was no chance he would ever be forgotten.

History books might have mentioned him as Mexico’s most beloved musician, now they would surely tell the tale of how he was a murderous egomaniac.

As he lay there, the sound of water all around him, that’s when the thought first occurred to him.

What if he could have died permanently without having to be forgotten?

He stood up as if he had just woken up from a nightmare, but his life was the nightmare, he knew that.

But maybe, just maybe he could have done something about it.

What if he managed to damage his skeletal body enough? Surely there must be a point where repair would no longer be possible.

He felt a new resolve burn inside him, he would have died again and this time finally, no matter how much pain that would have cost him.

Ernesto searched bungalow after bungalow until he found what he was looking for and so he sat on one of the wooden bridges, not caring that his shoes were in the water.

He discarded his jacket and threw it in the water where it soon disappeared, he couldn’t feel more exposed than he already did anyway.

Then he grabbed as firmly as he could the rusty knife he had found and placed it over his skeletal forearm.

He started breathing hard and looked away as he moved the knife to cut as deep as possible in one go.

It was pain like he had never experienced before, but he went on, sobbing silently and without tears.

Finally, he heard a _clunk_ and he dared look.

His hand, still attached to his severed ulna and radius was laying on the wooden platform.

Well, that was a start, he thought.

He closed his eyes to catch on his breathing and felt an even more excruciating pain than when he had severed his forearm.

The bones had reattached themselves to him with a nasty _crack_ , he could see splinters of them on the wood beneath him.

If he could have cried, he would have had, every second that passed, he felt more desperate.

In a fit of pure rage he grabbed the knife again, stood up and severed off as many of his ribs as he could.

When he had finished, he was panting and looking angrily at the severed bones, waiting.

And sure enough, they all flew back into place with horrible _cracks_ , for these cuts too had not been even.

He screamed so loud that he heard something like a loud whistling noise where his ears had once been.

He fell to his knees, when he opened his eyes, he saw his reflection in the water.

The thought of trying to drown himself came to him and he discarded it angrily just as quickly as it had come, he knew by experience that skeletons felt all the sensations a living person did, like being short of breath or feeling their heart beat too fast, even though all they were made of were bones, so he doubted that the lack of oxygen would affect him in some other way other than giving him the sensation of choking.

He spent several days in that place, living in whatever shack he found himself closest to when he felt exhausted.

He hand’t given up on the bone severing, with the only result that his once perfect bones looked like they had been roughly patched together.

He had tried anything for them not to mend again, in his latest attempt he had lit a fire and had thrown his own bones in it as soon as he roughly cut them off himself and that only made him find out that he could still feel through the bones even if they weren’t attached to his body.

He had literally burned before his bones had reattached themselves to him, scorching hot and more painful than ever.

His only consolation was that no one had found him there yet but he didn’t know he was wrong in thinking that no one knew where he was.

A young resident from Shantytown had just dropped by his old home that day and had seen de la Cruz there, he hadn’t told anybody about it except to the one person whom he thought deserved to know.

Ernesto was staying beside a fire that night, looking down at the water, holding his legs to his chest.

Maybe there was no way of damaging a skeleton beyond repair.

‘Ernesto?’ a voice behind him called and he gave such a hard startle that he fell face forwards into the water.

He crawled back up on the wooden platform only to see someone running over to him, but he had managed to get out on his own before he could have helped him, and besides he knew who that was, he would have recognized that voice to hell and back.

‘Héctor…’ he panted, looking up at him from his kneeling position.

‘I – I’m sorry I scared you,’ Héctor said rather awkwardly.

‘It’s nothing,’ Ernesto said, what else was there to say? And not about the scare he gave him, but about anything at all.

Ernesto stood up to his full height and Héctor’s eyes went wide.

‘Ernesto, what – what happened to you?’ he breathed out.

Ernesto looked at him with no light in his eyes, he could have been a corpse.

He was wearing only his old white trousers which were now cut and ripped in many places and his whole body looked completely mangled.

There wasn’t a bone that didn’t look badly broken or even charred.

In the left side of his chin, he had a thick cut that went all the way through.

He had been looking at Héctor with the hardest stare of his whole life but then he closed his eyes, ‘Life,’ he answered pleasantly.

‘Did you – did you do this to yourself?’ Héctor asked, still breathing rather unevenly.

‘Why yes, old friend,’ said Ernesto, ‘a fool’s wish for a final death that shall never come true.’

‘Ernesto…’ Héctor shook his head.

‘Don’t – ‘ Ernesto shouted before he lowered his voice dangerously, ‘don’t you dare pity me.’

‘We need to take you to the hospital, they’ll look over these wounds – ‘ Héctor started saying in a serious tone.

‘Do you really think – ‘ Ernesto shouted again, ‘do you really believe, just for one second, that I care?!’

‘Ernesto – ‘ Héctor tried again.

‘I’m worse than dead, Héctor! I can’t show my face anywhere anymore, I lived for my music and now it’s gone!’ he roared.

Héctor didn’t drop the gaze, their eyes were locked.

‘And it’s all my fault…’ Ernesto said then in a small voice, looking down.

Héctor had probably expected to hear anything but not this.

‘Why did you have to leave, Héctor?’ Ernesto looked up at him, ‘Why would you leave me on my own?!’ he shouted.

Héctor kept his calm, ‘I had a wife and daughter, they needed me.’

‘I needed you too!’ he roared in pain, ‘Look at you! Murdered at twenty-one! Look at what you made me do! Just look at yourself!’

Héctor didn’t obey but kept his eyes fixed on Ernesto’s.

He shook his head violently, ‘Tell me what to do, Héctor, I beg you…’

‘What do you want me to say?’ Héctor replied calmly.

‘A way to achieve a final death would be appreciated,’ Ernesto chuckled mirthelessly.

‘Don’t say that,’ Héctor said with a hard tone.

‘What can I do, Héctor? Please enlighten me,’ he said and he let out a little hysterical laugh, ‘no one will take an apology and I know I don’t deserve forgiveness!’

‘Ernesto, listen,’ Héctor said and his tone was so serious that Ernesto stopped and looked at him and Héctor continued, ‘you took everything away from me but you were my best friend, my brother. We both made a mistake… or two in my case… I should have never left with you and I should have never tried to leave you like that,’ said Héctor, then, to Ernesto’s surprise, he gave him a knowing smile, ‘you shouldn’t have killed me though.’

Ernesto let out a scoff of laughter, then he shook his head, ‘I’m sorry, Héctor. I was young, I was greedy, I was… an idiot. I truly am…’ Ernesto looked Héctor in the eye, ‘sorry.’

‘I believe you,’ said Héctor and Ernesto felt a pang where his heart once had been.

He couldn’t understand what it had been for but it had felt like relief.

‘I don’t deserve anything, not even you believing me, Héctor, I don’t…’ he said, ‘I just wish… I just wish I never did that to you. I wish I had mixed the glasses, I should’ve died. I deserved it for just thinking I could take a life, my best friend’s life,’ he looked up at Héctor, ‘you’ve always been my only friend, Héctor, and I took everything from you, I don’t deserve anything from you.’

Ernesto then looked down and his shoulders started shaking, soon he was sobbing without tears, ‘I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…’ he was saying it like a mantra and hid his face in his hand, his free one was shut tight in a shaking fist.

Héctor almost couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.

But he could feel the sincerity, he could hear the young boy who had once been his friend still in there somewhere.

He approached Ernesto and slowly rounded him with his arms, to which Ernesto gave a startle and went rigid but then he let himself break into more sobs.

Héctor tigthened the grip around him and pulled him close to his chest.

‘It’s alright now…’ Héctor said quietly.

‘No, it’s not,’ Ernesto said between sobs, ‘it’ll never be, I can’t give you back what I took.’

‘I’m with my family now, nothing else matters,’ Héctor said, ‘I forgive you.’

Ernesto’s eyes went wide and he shook Héctor’s arms off him.

‘No,’ Ernesto shook his head.

‘Yes,’ Héctor said back, ‘I was never good at holding things against you, remember when you broke my only toy at the orphanage?’

Ernesto’s eyes were wide, then he closed them, ‘I remember.’

‘Or when you spent all our savings on that stupid horse?’ Héctor continued, he was smiling.

‘I remember,’ Ernesto said.

‘Or…’ Héctor put more emphasis on this one, ‘when you told my first crush that I actually liked boys and I didn’t know for years why she never looked at me again, only to find out from one of your confessions off the drink?’

Ernesto couldn’t help a small smile crossing his lips, ‘I remember.’

‘I’ve always forgiven you, Ernesto,’ Héctor said simply, ‘and I always will.’

Ernesto looked at him in disbelief and Héctor gave him a grin, his golden tooth shone in the fire’s light, ‘Eh, I guess even someone like me had to be born with a flaw.’

Ernesto didn’t know if he had just chuckled or sobbed, or both, all he knew is that he was hiding his face again, with both hands this time and he was crying without being able to shed tears.

Héctor took the step that separated them and embraced him again, pressing him tightly against himself.

‘You’re coming home with me, Ernesto,’ said Héctor, ‘and that’s not a request.’

Ernesto wanted to say no, wanted to ask how in the name of all things sane he could possibly think that Imelda would have been alright with this, wanted to tell him that he loved him… him, his little brother… but none of this came out, maybe it could wait, maybe they would have had the time that hadn’t been granted to them in life to talk, simply talk, like brothers once again.

‘Maybe I need the hospital…’ Ernesto said quietly after he finally managed to stop sobbing against Héctor’s chest and he immediately felt it heave and drop with Héctor’s laughter, then Héctor pulled back and put his hands on Ernesto’s shoulders, giving him a kind look that he still was sure he did not deserve, ‘Yes brother, hospital first.’

‘I’ll say goodbye after that, Héctor,’ said Ernesto.

Héctor didn’t take his hands off the other man’s shoulders, ‘I told you, you’re coming home with me.’

‘Imelda will never have me,’ Ernesto said.

‘Imelda already agreed to it,’ Héctor said back.

‘What?!’ Ernesto breathed out.

‘She’s not happy about it, but we talked about this possible scenario too, she’s with me, she supports me,’ Héctor said.

‘I don’t deserve this, Héctor,’ Ernesto said, looking down.

‘Maybe you don’t, maybe you’ll earn it,’ said Héctor and Ernesto looked back up at him, and Héctor continued, ‘who knows?’

‘You’re crazy, you know that?’ Ernesto said with the most serene smile he had felt cross his lips in decades.

‘I think you mean to say that I’m only un poco loco,’ Héctor said with a grin.

Ernesto shook his head but he was still smiling, ‘Un poquitito.’

Héctor gave his shoulders a squeeze before he let go, he gave a nod with his head towards the archway of Shantytown.

And so they headed off, together again after a lifetime.


	2. A Drink Before The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Ernesto tried to achieve a final death by severely harming himself and Héctor found him and forgave him, they're set to head to the hospital to tend to Ernesto first and then reach the rest of the Riveras as brothers once more after a lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find my Tumblr post for this here: https://fedecolombo.tumblr.com/post/172669788837/.
> 
> Trade to the prompt of Héctor and Ernesto talking after the events of the first chapter of my Legends Never Die.

After a rather long walk, they reached the hospital.

The walk had been long because Ernesto had wanted to keep to dark alleys that couldn’t be really called shortcuts.

When it was time to step in the lights of the street, Ernesto let himself lean back against a wall of the alleyway they were in.

Héctor put a hand over his shoulder, ‘Come on, hermano.’

Ernesto shook his head, ‘I can’t do this, Héctor, people try to beat me up when they see me, do you think – ‘

‘That it’ll be different because it’s an hospital? Yes,’ said Héctor.

Ernesto started chewing on nothing, nervous and scared.

Héctor took his hand and gave it a squeeze, like when they were little and Ernesto would take his, ‘Come, Ernesto.’

He gave Héctor’s hand a tentative squeeze back before he pulled his hand away.

To Ernesto’s surprise, nobody seemed to recognize him, what with his messy hair and completely messed up body.

They had to wait relatively little before they were beckoned inside a private room.

The doctor pulled on a curtain when Ernesto sat on the bed to be examined.

Héctor waited on his feet on the other side of it.

He heard the doctor tell Ernesto that there wasn’t much to do about his bones, the only thing that could be done was to make them connect back evenly rather than splintering as they were now.

Ernesto didn’t really care at this point but said, ‘Yes, alright.’

Héctor heard a drawer being opened and closed and something snapping open.

‘This is going to hurt, sir, I’m very sorry,’ said the doctor.

Ernesto eyed the ointment with anxious eyes, then said, ‘It’s alright.’

The doctor then started applying it over where he had cut off his own bones and Ernesto grunted audibly.

He shoved a hand in his mouth and bit hard on it, that hurt much less than what was happening to his body anyway and to his great embarassment, it didn’t prevent pained moans to escape him.

On the other side of the curtain, Héctor was clenching his teeth, it was an understatement to say that he didn’t like at all hearing his re-found friend, his long lost brother in that much pain.

It took a long while for the doctor to be finished applying the substance to Ernesto’s bones and then he proceeded to bandage over it.

‘Do you have anything to change into, sir?’ the doctor then asked.

‘N – no…’ said Ernesto, voice weak from the strain.

‘I’ll be right back, I’m going to find you something,’ said the doctor with a kind smile.

‘Thank you,’ said Ernesto.

The doctor left with a nod to Héctor, who nodded back.

After a few moments, Ernesto spoke, ‘Héctor…’

‘Yes?’ Héctor replied right away.

‘Come here,’ Ernesto said, ‘please come.’

Héctor obeyed and found him leaning forwards, fists clenching the bed-sheets, he was almost completely bandaged or otherwise had his bones exposed and was wearing only some underwear.

He had his eyes closed and was breathing raggedly.

‘Ernesto…’ said Héctor, finding himself wishing he could take his pain on himself rather than to see him suffer like that.

Ernesto took a big gulp of air, his cheekbone was bandaged as well and he was shaking.

Héctor approached him and pushed his hair back from his face, ‘You always looked handsome with it slicked back, you know,’ he tried saying with half a smile.

‘Eh…’ Ernesto scoffed with laughter, ‘I’m not a looker anymore, if I ever was.’

‘Oh, you were, I was so jealous when we were young,’ Héctor admitted.

Ernesto lifted his head a bit so he could look Héctor in the eyes, ‘You were _such_ a liar then, always boasting about how you thought you were the handsome one,’ he said with a chuckle.

Héctor let out an amused laughter, ‘Oh yeah, I used to do that, didn’t I?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Ernesto.

They stood there together until the doctor came back with a plain pair of trousers and a white shirt, ‘I’m sorry but we couldn’t find any shoes, sir.’

‘It’s fine, thank you very much for these,’ Ernesto said and moved to take the clothes in his hands but felt a pain in his arm and had to pull it back.

Héctor took the clothes for him and helped him into them.

The doctor said that Ernesto was indeed free to go but that he could have had trouble walking.

Héctor first checked with Ernesto if that would have been alright with him then he asked the doctor, ‘Could we rent a wheelchair?’

‘Absolutely,’ he replied and made sure they got one in no time.

Héctor helped Ernesto sit in it and soon they were out in the street again.

‘Ready to go home?’ Héctor asked, pushing the wheelchair.

‘Not really…’ Ernesto admitted after a long moment.

‘Do you want to grab a drink before we head home then?’ Héctor tried, ‘To pass some time.’

Ernesto scoffed, ‘Do _you_ of all people want to have a drink with _me_?’

Héctor realized the dark irony of it and couldn’t help but laugh.

Ernesto chuckled despite himself, ‘Yeah, laught it up… you idiot.’

Héctor smiled, ‘Well, the idiot would still like to have a drink with you.’

‘Just one then,’ Ernesto agreed, ‘I don’t want to drag you home to your family while you’re completely wasted, or they’ll find a way to kill me even though I’m dead because they’ll think I somehow managed to poison the skeleton of an idiot _again_ … _their_ idiot.’

Héctor laughed heartily, ‘Just one, got it.’

They reached a nice bar and Héctor steered the wheelchair to a far corner where they would have been more tranquil and ordered two glasses of clear Tequila.

He took them with a word of thanks and laid one in front of Ernesto as he sat opposite him with his own.

They stood there for a long while, just sipping on the drinks, mostly talking.

‘So… this is a drink before the storm then…’ said Ernesto.

‘What storm?’ asked Héctor.

Ernesto had to smile weakly, ‘Your wife.’

Héctor stared for a moment before he looked away, ‘Well… she’s not happy about – ok, she’s incredibly angry about this idea but she won’t be a storm, believe me.’

‘I believe you, Héctor,’ said Ernesto softly.

Héctor looked at him, surprised then smiled, ‘Let’s work on these drinks then, we have somewhere else to be.’

‘It would seem so,’ Ernesto confirmed.

Héctor placed an elbow on the table and offered his open hand to Ernesto who mirrored his movement slowly because of the pain, but he did grab his hand and they gave each other a reassuring squeeze.

‘It’s going to be alright, Ernesto,’ said Héctor with a smile.

And at that point, Ernesto couldn’t help but feel hopeful and he smiled back a weak but sincere smile.


	3. Never Knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Héctor takes Ernesto in to live with his family and other than gifting him with a more than welcome surprise, Ernesto also finds something he never knew before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find my Tumblr post for this here: https://fedecolombo.tumblr.com/post/172684258752/.
> 
> Writing based on my own idea.

They left the bar not long afterwards.

Ernesto hadn’t managed to finish his drink, the thought of meeting Héctor’s family and especially his wife was making him feel so uncomfortable that he thought his body might find a way to be sick if he had drunk one more drop.

Héctor attempted more than just a few times to start a conversation to keep Ernesto’s mind off things but he seemed to be caught in a stupor and was answering Héctor with nods or small noises until he stopped doing that completely.

He seemed to snap out of it when he saw the name Rivera on the building they were approaching.

Ernesto felt himself choking and clenched his fists, he couldn’t do this.

‘Héctor,’ he called out loudly and he sounded in such a panic that Héctor gave a hard startle before he hurried to be in front of the wheelchair.

‘Ernesto, w – what’s wrong?’ he said worriedly.

‘I can’t do this,’ Ernesto choked out, shaking his head.

‘You can – ‘ Héctor tried.

‘No, I can’t!’ Ernesto said loudly, looking away again.

Héctor looked at him with sorrow in his eyes before he kneeled in front of him and placed his hands on top of Ernesto’s, which were clenching tight the fabric of his trousers.

‘Ernesto…’ Héctor said gently and he looked up at him.

Héctor gave him a kind smile, ‘It’s going to be alright.’

Ernesto seemed on the verge of tears even though skeletons couldn’t cry and he closed his eyes.

He took a deep breath and Héctor gave his hands a reassuring squeeze.

‘Ready?’ Héctor asked.

‘Ready,’ Ernesto said quietly.

Soon they passed the Riveras’s workshop and arrived to the family’s great home.

Héctor unlocked the door and entered with Ernesto, after he locked it back, he called out, ‘I’m back!’ and Ernesto wished with all himself that no one had heard him.

Moments later, Imelda Rivera was standing in the next room’s doorway.

She didn’t say a word.

Ernesto swallowed hard and he pushed on the wheelchair’s arm to stand up.

‘No, don’t – ‘ Héctor said but he had already got up.

‘Buenas tardes, señora,’ Ernesto said, voice trembling.

Imelda stared long and hard at him before she looked at Héctor, ‘Did everything go alright?’

‘Yes, my love,’ Héctor said reassuringly, ‘everything’s just fine.’

Imelda looked back at Ernesto, ‘I want you to know that I won’t be behaving as I believe I should because Héctor asked me not to,’ she started, ‘and I love him and I will do anything for him,’ she continued, ‘this isn’t for _you_.’

‘Yes…’ Ernesto said simply, lowering his gaze.

‘Imelda – ‘ Héctor started but Ernesto spoke over him, ‘Don’t, she’s being more than accomodating.’

‘You bet I am,’ she snapped at Ernesto and with one last hard look at him, she left the room, ‘I’ll be waiting for you, Héctor.’

‘Yes, I’ll be right there,’ Héctor called after her.

Ernesto let himself fall back in the wheelchair with a grunt of pain and hid his face in his hands.

‘Ernesto…’ Héctor said gently after a moment.

‘It’s fine,’ Ernesto lied, ‘it’s… fine.’

Héctor rubbed Ernesto’s shoulder reassuringly, ‘I’ll take you to your room.’

They reached an elevator and the second floor.

‘You’ll be staying in the spare room next to mine and Imelda’s,’ Héctor said, a little tentatively.

‘Yes,’ Ernesto said, he really had no other words.

Héctor accompanied him inside and helped him into the bed, putting an extra pillow behind his back when he saw Ernesto seemed to want to stay more straight up and then pulling the covers over him.

‘Thank you, Héctor…’ said Ernesto.

‘Do you need anything?’ Héctor asked, ‘Anything at all?’

Ernesto was about to reply that this was more than enough, when suddenly a thought occurred to him.

‘Héctor!’ he said, eyes wide, ‘My – my alebrijes… I know that there are people living where – where I lived, what, what happened to them?’ he breathed out.

Ernesto looked at Héctor only to see him smiling, ‘They’re with us, always around the workshop, would you like me to bring them here?’

‘Please,’ Ernesto said.

It took very little for Héctor to go and come back but it felt like an eternity to Ernesto.

He felt scared without Héctor, as if his family could have hurt him in ways that would have been much worse than physical.

Soon though, Héctor pushed open the door to Ernesto’s room with his shoulder and entered with four Chihuahuas in his arms.

As soon as they saw Ernesto though, they literally jumped off Héctor’s arms and rushed on to the bed and against their owner.

‘Hey! Easy there!’ Héctor tried but the alebrijes seemed too content with having re-found their beloved master to notice that he was wincing in pain at the small pressure they were applying on him.

Héctor was ready to get them off him and place them next to him instead but he stopped dead when he saw the expression on Ernesto’s face.

He seemed again on the verge of tears but he could see the gratefulness in his eyes at seeing his alebrijes were alright and even there with him.

‘Thank you…’ he said, voice weak, looking at Héctor.

‘Oh Ernesto…’ Héctor smiled a kind smile.

‘You better go to your wife now though,’ Ernesto said as soon as his dogs settled down a little.

‘Yeah…’ Héctor agreeed, ‘do you need anything else?’

‘Thank you,’ said Ernesto, ‘but I’m more than fine now,’ he said, a pained expression still on his face but through it was that gratefulness at having re-found his alebrijes, whom were those who had been his only true family in the Land of the Dead.

‘Alright,’ said Héctor, ‘if you need anything though, call me, or send one of your alebrijes, any way works.’

‘Thank you, Héctor…’ Ernesto said, gratefully.

‘You’re welcome, my brother,’ Héctor smiled to him and then he left, slowly closing the door until it clicked shut and Ernesto was thinking that Héctor’s was kindness like he had never known before.

Ernesto spent the entirety of the next days in his room, grateful for the real excuse of being too much in pain to move too much but when he recovered just a little, Héctor tried to persuade him to start spending time with the family and he agreed only to the condition that Héctor had to be present when he was.

So Ernesto started sharing meals with the Riveras and a little later on, he would spend time in the workshop, watching them work from his wheelchair, always surrounded by his alebrijes.

And it was an understatement to say that all of this was completely new to him.

Seeing a family so close to one another in every possible way was something he never knew to be possible, and yet it was, he could see it with his own eyes now.

And he couldn’t help but wonder if, in time, he could have been a part of that too.


End file.
